Vuzix and Nokia Engineer Optical Tech Breakthrough

As exciting of a development as Google Glass was, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Wearable technology is likely to improve substantially in the near future and a new breakthrough by Nokia and Vuzix are kicking that future off right now.

The two companies have taken augmented reality tech that was originally designed for U.S. Special Forces (they get all the best stuff) and have compacted it to fit within standard glasses frames. While I’m still waiting for the consumer edition Iron Man suit, this is a pretty cool development.

The full press release is below and how much you’ll get out of it depends on your familiarity with technology, but in short, Vuzix and Nokia has taken cutting-edge technology and made it so accessible that Google Glass headsets now look like something out of a wonky 1980s science fiction film.

The new Waveguide optics engine jointly developed with Nokia®, for the first time enables smart eyewear technology capable of fitting into standard glasses frames and is being first introduced with the release of the Vuzix M2000AR HMD.

Waveguide optics are a revolutionary new way of moving light within smart glasses and are a fraction of the size and weight of conventional prism-based optics used in competing wearable smart devices. Waveguide optics also deliver a much wider field of view for the user.

As opposed to requiring large optics to focus and create the required virtual image, Waveguide optics use a 1.4mm thin “window” (operating similar to a fiber optic) with a tiny input pupil that is expanded using a hologram in front of the eye. Light is not bent through bulk material as in conventional optics, which provides a significant improvement in mass, weight, volume, simplicity and overall optical performance.

The technology was originally developed by Nokia and licensed to Vuzix. Vuzix integrated it with its own waveguide technology and developed other improvements for its release into Vuzix products.

The first Vuzix product to use the revolutionary Waveguide technology is the highly anticipated and immediately available M2000AR for Enterprise. This monocular solution is not only the first of many planned waveguide-based solutions for 2014 – it is also ruggedized for industrial applications. The M2000AR also includes:

720p display and 1080p camera

HDMI Interface

Electronic sunglass “tint”

30° FOV

Daylight usable with up to 8,000 Nits of brightness

Integrated head tracking

Integrated compass

Anodized aluminum alloy enclosure

Rechargeable lithium ion battery

For further information on the M2000AR and to order units, please visit www.vuzix.com. The M2000AR will be demonstrated at CES 2014.

About The Author

Dylan Duarte is a freelance writer who's covered film, television, videogames, and of course tech! He's also an aspiring screenwriter and likes that watching movies is considered "work" because of it. You can follow him on twitter @dylanduarte, but be warned that it's mostly the nonsensical ramblings of a potty-mouth.